Audio Review: Retribution by Sloane Kennedy

Retribution (Protectors #3) by Sloane Kennedy, Narration by Joel Leslie
Audible, Amazon, Goodreads
Time: 8 hours and 3mins

Blurb: Ex Special Forces soldier Michael “Hawke” Hawkins has spent every day of the last ten years waiting for the moment he would get to watch the life fade from the eyes of the men who brutally murdered his wife, but when he finally gets the break he’s been waiting for, the trail leads him to someone he wasn’t expecting.

After nearly two years of running, 24-year-old Tate Travers has become an expert at hiding…until the day a dangerous stranger shows up looking for vengeance and threatens to destroy the fragile life Tate has managed to build for himself and his five-year-old son. Except the life Tate has been struggling to hold on to started unraveling long before Hawke showed up looking for the same men Tate has been running from…his own father and older brother.

Retribution – it’s all Hawke has wanted since the day he held his wife’s hand as she took her last breath. And he won’t give that up for anything or anyone…not even the tormented young man trying to give his little boy a better life. Because Tate is the only one who can lead Hawke to the men he’s been searching for. And if it means forcing the young man to confront the past that nearly destroyed him, then so be it.

Only the last thing Hawke expects to feel is something besides the hatred that has driven him. And he definitely never expected to feel it for a man.

But when it comes down to choosing between the unwanted feelings Tate stirs in him and the revenge he’s finally close enough to taste, will Hawke be able to give up the one thing that has kept him going for a second chance at a future he gave up on ever having?

Review

The Story: 3.75 Pants Off 

Michael “Hawke”Hawkins lives for the day he catches his wife’s killers. That’s his only mission, and when he gets evidence that could finally lead him to his killers Hawke is more than ready to lay down the law. What the evidence leads to is someone he never expected. Tate Travers the link to his revenge and Hawke will be damned if he lets the man out of his sight. But Tate comes with responsibility, in the form of a son who has just been diagnosed with a serious illness. It’s time for a little manipulation and promising Tate that his son will get the best medical treatment on the condition that he takes them to the men responsible for the death of his wife, his father and brother.  

Tate has been running from the very men Hawke wants him to help find but his sons health on the line at this point he’d do anything, and that includes helping the asshole who had a gun on him in front of his son but there is something about him that Tate just can’t deny. Maybe this thing between them will lead to something but Tate knows it won’t because Hawke is very much a straight man still madly in love with his life. 

Thus begins a love story between a man who held another man at gunpoint in front of his son and who needs him to help catch his murdering father and brother. Tate has fallen hard for Hawke but the man has whatever left of his heart locked away tight but Tate is willing to take scraps if it means only having Hawke for just a moment. 

What can I say about this except nothing really happens, just whole bunch of the same same. Like there was some heartwarming story mixed in with doom and angst but I feel like we’ve gotten the same type of feel as the previous books. With that being said I happen to like this story a lot more than the previous books. Hawke is a bit of an asshole but I liked his character and the reason for his pain is very understandable. Tate I also liked, he stepped up and took care of his son and was willing to anything at any cost to himself. 

I didn’t really like the conclusion but I get it, things needed to be tied up and a lot of things explained but overall an alright entertaining book. I found this to be the least sexy of the books and it should have been hella sexy with Hawke catching his first feelings for a man but there was just some questionable shit there and the fact that Tate took that really pissed me off.  

The Narration: 3.5 Pants Off  

Now this was a better job from the previous book and there was no random burst of laughter from me. Still some emoting especially when Ronan came in, seriously that voice for that character is a freaking mess.  

Not really a fan of his voice for Tate, he ended up sounding like a gentile southern lady. Which I wasn’t really feeling but I didn’t hate it. I feel there were a few scenes there that needed just a little bit more emotion and it wasn’t quite delivered. Also after awhile a few characters started sound exactly like each other, except for Ronan his voice will be a tattoo on my brain and will have me bursting into giggles whenever I think of it. 

It was a passable job but nothing to really rave about 🤷🏽‍♀️

Review: Book #1 Absolution

Review: Book #2 Salvation